Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court Finalizes List of Candidates for Presidential Election

A picture of President Bashar al-Assad in Arnous Square in Damascus yesterday (AFP)
A picture of President Bashar al-Assad in Arnous Square in Damascus yesterday (AFP)
TT

Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court Finalizes List of Candidates for Presidential Election

A picture of President Bashar al-Assad in Arnous Square in Damascus yesterday (AFP)
A picture of President Bashar al-Assad in Arnous Square in Damascus yesterday (AFP)

Syria's Supreme Constitutional Court has accepted three candidates for the presidential elections, including Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, Bashar Hafez al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmad Marai.

The Chief of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, announced earlier that the court received six applications of complaint by the candidates whose applications to run for election were rejected.

He noted that the Court General Panel studied the complaints but rejected them.

He added that the court set the election campaign for the candidates from May 16 to 24.

The elections will be held for expatriates at Syrian consulates and embassies on May 20, and for the Syrians inside the country on May 26.

Notably, 51 people had submitted their applications for the elections.

Abdullah, 1956, from Aleppo, is a member of the Socialist Unionist Party and a member of the parliament for two cycles.

Marai, 1957, from Damascus countryside, is the head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights and secretary-general of the National Front for the Liberation of Syria.

Assad, 1965, was elected as a president in 2001, 2007, and 2014.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
TT

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.